


Down Where the Sea and City Meet

by Vongchild



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Christmas in Australia, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Post-Movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 09:11:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13210587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vongchild/pseuds/Vongchild
Summary: December is hard when half your family is dead at the bottom of the ocean.





	Down Where the Sea and City Meet

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pvwork](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pvwork/gifts).



Hercules Hansen’s dog is missing.

He suspects foul play.

Max is not the sort of dog to make it very far on his own. He is content to spend most of his days sprawled out on the rug in his master’s office, following the sunlight around the room and dragging his dog bed behind him with his stubby snout. Every so often, someone might knock on the door, and he’ll raise his head, ears pricking up, waiting to see who will walk through the door - someone he’s long awaited?

Someone who’s not coming back.

There’s not a Shatterdome anymore. There’s no need for one. With no Kaiju to fight and no Jaegers to tend to, the PPDC is in maintenance mode - a small staff spread over a few office suites in Sydney, as close to where this all started for Herc as they can get. Administration on this level, finances across the hall, R&D downstairs where if Newt blows anything up it won’t put a hole in the floor.

But back to the missing English bulldog.

It’s nearly Christmas, and he’d thought he was alone in the building. The rest of his staff ought to be with their families, or, barring that, at least at the beach. But as he leaves his office, he can hear a soft voice coming from the other end of the hall - and Max’s occasional snuffling grunt of response.

And, very rarely, a soft laugh. One he’s always savored hearing.

“You took my dog,” he says from the doorway.

Mako looks up at him from where she is sitting cross-legged on the floor, Max’s big head resting against her calves. Her face is blotchy, like she was crying but isn’t now. “Decembers are hard,” she says.

Herc feels like an asshole, because - of course. It’s been a year since Tamsin died. (It feels like so much _longer_ . 2025 has been _interminable_.) “Sorry,” he says. “You can keep him.”

Mako smiles. Just a little bit.

“I thought you’d be with Raleigh by now,” says Herc.

“He gets here tomorrow." 

Herc checks the time on his mobile. It’s late enough for a dinner break, and they’re both holiday orphans for tonight. (It’s the 21st. Close enough, he thinks.) “Do you want to go get some food?” he asks, and Mako nods, gently lifts Max’s head out of her lap, and gets to her feet. “You’ve been working hard.” 

She shrugs. “Or hardly working.”

Herc decides he’s not going to interrogate that line of thinking - Mako doesn’t need an opportunity to work herself up over spending half an hour petting Max instead of working on spreadsheets. They head down to the chip shop on the corner and get newsprint-lined baskets of fried fish. December is balmy - not yet high summer, but a far cry from the Christmases they spent at Stacker’s apartment in Anchorage - and they take seats on the patio. It’s just late enough that the heater is on, the sky quickly darkening. 

Max flops at Herc’s feet.

Mako’s let the blue grow out of her hair - Herc privately thinks it’s because she was getting recognized too much. _Tokyo’s Daughter_ . _The Hero of the Breach_. Tonight, they’re both fairly anonymous amidst the hustle and bustle of the high street. None of the shoppers racing by pay them any attention - and why should they? There are less than four shopping days until Christmas. 

“Are all your gifts wrapped?” Herc asks, reaching for the mustard. 

“Yes,” says Mako, and frowns. “I didn’t have that many to buy this year. Don’t tell Max, but I got him a whole barrel of pig ears.”

Max lets out an almighty snore. “I don’t think he heard you,” says Herc. “You’re in the clear.” But he feels the same thing - not many gifts to buy this year. She’d said December was hard, and it was, but - January was going to be hard, too. They’ve made it nearly a whole year. The world’s moved on. People are remembering what it was like before K-Day. What it’s like to exhale and not wait for another attack.

But half their family lies dead and buried at the bottom of the ocean, and that’s not a wound that heals so easily.

“Have you heard from your brother?” Herc asks.

“Yeah, one second,” says Mako, reaching for her phone. “I have to show you.” She holds it out, showing him a string of text messages - “Copy” “I’m alive” and then a selfie of Jake with a cartoon Santa hat stuck over his head. He’s not smiling.

“Ah,” observes Herc. “He’s taking after Chuck.”

“I told him that,” says Mako, a trace of laughter in her voice. “He said, _good_.”

Herc sighs. “I should go check up on him,” he says. But… he knows Jake is probably getting on just fine on his own. He’s Stacker’s son, after all.

They finish their food. “We should head back to the office,” says Mako.

The sun is down. The whole street glows with Christmas lights. “I can’t remember the last time it looked like this,” Herc says, rousing Max from his nap. The dog falls dutifully into step beside them. Electricity attracts Kaiju. Or, attracted them, anyway. Keeping usage down was one of those wartime efforts. It wasn’t clear whether it actually did anything - Sydney was still sacked multiple times - but it certainly made December a lot darker.

“I don’t remember it _ever_ looking like this,” says Mako, who is so, so young in a world that’s been at war since she was a little girl. Herc looks over at her. He recognizes her expression - she used to look at Jaegers like that. If they go back to the office, she’ll only go back to being sad about Tamsin and Stacker and Chuck. He knows what that’s like. 

He also knows where to find more lights.

Herc puts a fatherly hand on Mako’s shoulder, and she looks over at him in surprise. “I think we’ve done enough work for today,” he says. “You saved the world. Let’s enjoy it.”

Mako reaches over and takes Max’s leash from him, leading the dog to her side. Then, she says, “Okay. Yes. Let’s do that.”

**Author's Note:**

> hey sorry totally went the "chased a plot bunny" route but it was definitely inspired by your idea of living through the apocalypse and thriving??? 
> 
> Anyway I HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT, happy holidays.
> 
> (Thank you to Ienablu for beta-ing.)


End file.
